1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system where a plurality of page-description languages (PDL) is used to process a print job.
2. Description of the Related Art
A print job is sent from an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer to an image forming apparatus such as a printer. Conventionally, a print job is written in a single page-description language. When a print job is received in an image forming apparatus, the print job is processed in one page-description language throughout the print job. Page-description languages have their own features. Some page-description languages provide a wide variety of commands that are useful in handling graphics, and other page-description languages provide a relatively small number of commands and a high throughput, which are useful in editing a text.
Some print jobs may have graphic information inserted at several locations therein. Other print jobs may require a page-description language excellent in describing graphics as well as a page-description language suitable in describing a text portion. Conventionally, when the page-description language is switched from one to another in a print job, the image forming apparatus construes that a new job has started. Thus, the image forming apparatus outputs, in the middle of a page, a portion of the page earlier than the switching of the page description language. A complete page having graphic information cannot be printed out. A variety of techniques have been disclosed for effectively using a plurality of page-description languages.